The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks

Joanna’s story is one that I’m familiar with because I’ve both heard her tell it and because I recognize parts of it in my friends and myself. All of these chapters are rich with description and detail. She writes about the cultural dissonance that comes from being “in the world but not of it.” She writes about her adoration for Marie Osmond. In the growing up years, which comprise the bulk of the memoir, she gives us detailed and delightful stories of her Young Women’s leaders and her grandmothers, interesting, devoted, hardworking women who taught her the gospel while hiking mountain passes and doing service. So it’s really the perfect time for her memoir, The Book of Mormon Girl, to be released.īrooks divides her life into three basic sections– growing up, early adulthood/disillusionment, and maturation/resolution. Last week, the front page of CNN’s website included an in-depth story of Brooks and her family. In addition to her job as chair of the English Department at San Diego State University, she writes for Religion Dispatches and Washington Post, hosts the Ask Mormon Girl website, and blogs at Feminist Mormon Housewives. While Mitt Romney is undoubtedly the most high-profile Mormon in America right now, many might argue that Joanna Brooks is the most high-profile Mormon woman in America today. Title: The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith

The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks